A weekly thread about the past
Part One here. As 1868 dawned, Andrew Johnson grew bolder and his adversaries, increasingly frustrated. Washington life fell into a dismal pattern, observed French journalist Georges Clemenceau, that yielded only deadlock and chaos: At each session [Congress] add a shackle … Continue reading History Thread: The Saturday Morning Massacre
Andrew Johnson was a stubborn man. From his hardscrabble childhood in North Carolina, when he escaped from indentured servitude; as an unschooled Tennessee tailor who taught himself (helped by his wife Eliza) to read and write, developing a taste for … Continue reading History Thread: Andrew Johnson’s Dignity
Biological warfare, the employment of pathogens derived from living organisms in order to kill or incapacitate an enemy, is a practice known from antiquity. The titular character of Philoctetes, Sophocles’ 409 BC play, is a Greek hero who suffers from … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread Wages Biological Warfare and Helps Spread a Pandemic
Today, Rick Perlstein’s new book, Reaganland: America’s Right Turn, 1976-1980, hits bookstores. It’s useful to remember, as Perlstein continues exploring the Republican Party’s right turn between 1960 and 1980, the manufactured controversy surrounding his last volume, The Invisible Bridge, in … Continue reading The Plagiarized History Thread
In the fall of 1979, 600 academics from across the world signed a petition protesting the dismissal of Robert Faurisson, a French professor of literature at the University of Lyon. The text of the petition read: Dr. Robert Faurisson has … Continue reading History Thread: Or, The Perils of Condoning Pseudohistory
I recently had occasion to reread the amusing exchange between Gore Vidal and two historians over the former’s novel Lincoln in the New York Review of Books. Vidal, a man who never let a slight go, spent a lengthy open … Continue reading The Scholar Squirrel History Thread
During the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) engaged in a variety of morally, ethically and intellectually dubious projects. Some were blatantly illegal, from their involvement in assassination plots to domestic espionage programs like Operation CHAOS; others were outrageous, … Continue reading The Acoustic Kitty History Thread
From 1956 to 1971, the FBI ran a series of covert operations designed to infiltrate radical political groups. Dubbed COINTELPRO (for counterintelligence programs), it countenanced a wide variety of techniques for harassing and undermining groups by encouraging infighting and dissension. … Continue reading The Faux Groovy History Thread
Today’s History Thread falls on Bastille Day, which commemorates the beginning of the French Revolution. In case you need a refresher on this event, you can check out this short article from Mentalfloss. Continue reading Le forum de l’histoire révolutionnaire
Another week where life got in the way and I didn’t have time to prepare as detailed a thread as you like. Thrill, though, as today is the 92nd anniversary of the invention of sliced bread by Otto Rohwedder, ensuring … Continue reading The Greatest History Thread Since Sliced Bread
On this day, one hundred years ago, former President William H. Taft was nominated and confirmed as the Chief Justice of the United States, becoming the first and (thus far) only person to hold both offices. Taft today is primarily … Continue reading The June 30 Chief Justice William H. Taft History Thread
On June 23rd, 1972, Richard Nixon and his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, met to discuss the ongoing Watergate scandal. Much of their conversation involved the FBI’s investigation of the break-in (which had occurred six days earlier), and the President … Continue reading The Smoking History Thread
On June 19, 1954, Senator Lester C. Hunt of Wyoming walked into the Capitol Building with his arms full of boxes and papers. A Capitol police officer recognized Hunt and offered his assistance; Hunt handed the officer a .22 caliber … Continue reading History Thread: Nightmare in Lavender
Today’s History Thread marks the anniversary of Joseph McCarthy’s humiliation at the Army-McCarthy hearings. The present author has written about the Red Scare several times in the past, but has only glancingly touched on Tailgunner Joe. McCarthy enjoyed a four … Continue reading The History Thread Has No Sense of Decency
I am not in the head space right now for an in-depth write up of anything, least of all what I’d planned to write about today (eg. the Tulsa Riots of 1921), so enjoy a scream and post whatever you … Continue reading History Thread Screams into the Void
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! I wanted to do something more lighthearted this week (well, a little more lighthearted, it’s still war-adjacent) so I discovered that tomorrow is the birthday of Old Abe, the United States Army’s most famous … Continue reading Old Abe’s History Thread
A few weeks ago I devoted a History Thread to the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970. Just eleven days later, on May 15th, another campus shooting shocked the nation. While Kent State remains widely known (enough to inspire … Continue reading The Jackson State History Thread
On May 12th, 1215, English barons rose in rebellion against their king, the John made famous by Robin Hood legends and “The Lion in Winter.” Rebellions against English kings happened all the time, but this was the first occurrence involving … Continue reading A History Thread
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the Kent State shooting, one of the most traumatic moments of the Vietnam War era. I’ve previously written around it (writing articles on Nixon’s decision to invade Cambodia and the backlash to the shooting … Continue reading The Kent State History Thread
Today’s History Thread remembers the April 28, 1945 execution of Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci. By now WWII was nearly over in Europe; Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich had been reduced to a few bombed-out neighborhoods in Berlin, his … Continue reading This History Thread Kills Fascists
This week’s History Thread looks at the most notorious photographic hoax of the 20th Century: the Surgeon’s Photograph of the Loch Ness Monster. The Monster made its modern debut in 1933, with a burst of sightings that were eagerly covered … Continue reading The Hoaxed History Thread
